


What You Deserve

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Foxtrot [24]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, The Dollhouse - Fandom
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 14:00:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6242203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: Author’s choice, author’s choice, “May you get everything you deserve” is not a blessing. Set post-series. John Sheppard at Dave Sheppard's sentencing hearing amid the Dollhouse prosecutions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What You Deserve

Kathy Sheppard's expression was frosty. Her daughters, Clara and Anna, clung to her, gazing wide-eyed at their father.  
  
Dave Sheppard had been made for thousand-dollar Armani suits and gold Rolex watches, not government-issue orange jumpsuits and steel handcuffs. "Kathy –"  
  
"May you get everything you deserve," Kathy hissed. Then she led her daughters into the courtroom.  
  
The jury had deliberated for three days, which wasn't all that long compared to how long the trial had taken – six months. Given what Rossum had been doing for decades, distilling all its sins into six months was a miracle, and even then that was a drop in the bucket, because Rossum's international holdings were untouched while the international community scrambled to figure out how to respond.  
  
Of course, the international community hadn't had Foxtrot John Sheppard as the poster child for the corruption of the Dollhouse program and Rossum; most former actives preferred their anonymity.  
  
Kathy and her daughters sat in the back of the courtroom, Kathy stoic, her daughters nervous. They didn't really understand what was going on, but they knew their family was falling apart. The media was lapping up the fact that John Sheppard was sitting right behind the defense counsel table, wearing a civilian suit instead of his Class-A blues. When the jury foreperson read the verdict, guilty, John Sheppard didn't look smug or pleased. His expression was unreadable.  
  
The marshals hauled Dave to his feet but paused when John rose up.  
  
"Dave, I'm still your brother," he said. "What's left of him."  
  
Dave shook his head. "No. I don't deserve that."  
  
"You didn't know," John said.  
  
"Because I didn't care enough to look closely at what my father and I consigned to you, Joe."  
  
"Not Joe, not completely, not anymore. I'm mostly John. I'm John in all the ways that count."  
  
"You stopped talking to us after Afghanistan."  
  
"I had things to figure out," John said. "I had to figure myself out. But we're still family."  
  
Dave ducked his head, sucked in a deep breath. "I really am sorry. Look out for Kathy and the girls for me."  
  
"I will."  
  
The marshals grumbled, and Dave let himself be hauled away. John turned and cut through the crowd, headed for the door.  
  
Kathy caught his wrist. "John. Joe. Foxtrot. I'm so sorry."  
  
"John," he said gently. "Always John, for you and the girls."  
  
"How can you stand to look at him?" Kathy bit her lip, glanced down at her daughters.  
  
"It's hard to explain." John knelt down so he was eye-level with Clara. "Hey, I know things have been scary for the last little while, and a lot of things have changed for you, but I'm always your Uncle John, okay?"  
  
Clara nodded. "Will you play a song for me? I'll sing with you."  
  
Kathy's breath hitched with a smothered sob.  
  
"Sure, kiddo. Let's go find a piano." John stood up, offered Clara his hand, and he walked out of the courthouse with the tattered remains of his brother's family. He knew Dave had done wrong, that Rossum had been evil, and Dave had more than deserved his prison sentence, but his family hadn't deserved losing him. Getting what you deserved wasn't a blessing.


End file.
